Buffalo Nickel History

Buffalo Nickel was issued from 1913 to 1938, enjoying a 25-year reign that is still widely celebrated by today's collectors.

Also known as Indian Head nickels and Bison nickels, the Buffalo nickel was minted in three locations:

Denver Mint (D)

San Francisco Mint (S)

Philadelphia Mint (no mint mark).

The Buffalo Nickel weighed five grams and was made of 75% copper and 25% nickel.

Buffalo Nickel Oddities

Striking Buffalo Nickels presented a few technical problems due to the high relief. As a result, many of the coins appear weakly struck. The 1926-D Buffalo Nickel is particularly weak; in fact most of the coins struck by the Denver Mint that year were poor.

In 1937 an emery stick used to resurface a die removed one of the buffalo's four legs! That Buffalo nickel was known as the "three legged" issue and became a rare collectors item.

The very next year, a public competition was held to find a new design to replace the Buffalo Nickel. That heralded the end of Indian Head / Buffalo nickel after 25 years in production.

Pete, the owner of PC Coins and a longtime coin expert, hand selects each Buffalo Nickel personally instead of buying in bulk like so many dealers do. That means you get higher quality coins to choose from and can buy in confidence.

And because we're smaller, our overhead is lower so we can sell Buffalo Nickels and other coins for less than you'd pay for the same coin at other dealers.

Buffalo Nickels For Your Budget

Whatever your budget, there's a Buffalo Nickel on this website you can afford. They range from as little as $44.99 to hundreds or thousands of dollars for premium quality, rare Buffalo Nickels destined to rise in value over the years.